Microsoft Ditches CES? So What?

Now that Microsoft's lost its free ride, it won't be shilling for CES anymore. But a software company shouldn't be the big draw at a consumer electronics show anyway.

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The big news at the moment is that Microsoft will abandon opening the massive Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas after one last keynote speech by CEO Steve Ballmer. The reasons for this are now being hotly debated. The fact is, the show has moved on and Microsoft, the software company, probably should not be at CES in the first place.

Probably the main reason the company was ever at CES was so they could get Bill Gates to give the first keynote starting off the show. That was always a huge success. Ballmer is not quite the draw.

There are only a very few stars in the business that are very well known and who could actually draw a big crowd. This would include the late Steve Jobs, Bill Gates, Larry Ellison and Barack Obama. Everyone else is second tier.

But boring Ballmer is not what's behind this withdrawal. Money is. I'm not sure what kind of concessions Microsoft got from the organizers to shill for CES, but I assume the free ride is over.

I was told how Microsoft operates some years back by the owner (at the time) of COMDEX, which was the biggest computer expo in the world, also held in Vegas, before CES got the title. Microsoft got top billing for the keynote and its huge presence on the COMDEX show floor for free; that's right, MSFT paid nothing for the space or the speech placement. It was provided gratis so Microsoft could play the shill for other vendors and attendees. Once that ended Microsoft was done.

Getting something for nothing is not completely out of character for Microsoft. When PC Magazine was licensed to a Brazilian publisher I went down there to visit and was told by the publisher that Microsoft came into his offices and demanded a bunch of advertising space in the new magazine. When he quoted them a price, the Microsoft rep told him that the company had no intention on paying for any of the ads.

The Microsoft sales guy went on to tell him that Microsoft ads need to be in the magazine or nobody would take the magazine seriously. Thus they should be free of charge. The publisher threw the guy out and as far as I know the magazine never got any Microsoft advertising money.

And yes, the magazine survived for years.

Microsoft likes to do business so it makes all the money and there are no crumbs for anyone else. It was bound to leave CES when things stopped balancing in Microsoft's favor.

I never saw any reason for Microsoft to be at the CES show in the first place. What sort of "consumer electronics" does Microsoft really make? Keyboards? Mice? The ongoing problem with the CES show has always been the huge array of "off-topic" vendors that displayed there. That especially includes companies like Microsoft who were never actual consumer electronics manufacturers.

CES was traditionally the third rung of shows for computer companies. There used to be the NCC, the National Computer Conference which at first eschewed the small computer scene. Then came COMDEX (short for Computer Dealers' Exposition). Computer dealers died off soon enough and COMDEX just took over the whole scene with a show for everyone interested in computers and peripherals.

The reason for the disappearance of COMDEX is somewhat vague, but it's time was probably up the same way the NCC show was doomed.

CES has shown no signs of slippage and has outlasted most of the big mega-shows. Now that it is the last man standing it is hard to say how long it can go before people are sick of it. My guess is probably a decade or more.

Microsoft being there or not being there it claims it will still participate and is only stopping the keynotes, but who really believes that?will make zero difference. A lot of small fry who liked to piggy back on to the Microsoft booth will be hurt, but Microsoft will not be hurt and neither will CES.

John Dvorak is a columnist for PCMag.com and the host of the weekly TV video podcast CrankyGeeks. His work is licensed around the world. Previously a columnist for Forbes, Forbes Digital, PC World, Barrons, MacUser, PC/Computing, Smart Business and other magazines and newspapers. Former editor and consulting editor for Infoworld. Has appeared in the New York Times, LA Times, Philadelphia Enquirer, SF Examiner, Vancouver Sun. Was on the start-up team for CNet TV as well as ZDTV. At ZDTV (and TechTV) was host of Silicon...
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